1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to chair legs and their constructions to enable the mounting of casters and glides thereon. More particularly, the invention comprises a formed tubular leg having an integral socket at its lower end enabling the direct mounting of a caster or a glide without the necessity for an intervening caster insert.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,130,245; 2,254,651 and 2,732,157 show chair legs equipped with separately formed socket structures for casters which require attaching to the leg by riveting, welding or by driving the socket onto the leg as in U.S. Pat. No. 2,130,245. These patented arrangements are costly and inconvenient and do not deal with a problem existing in the prior art which remains unsolved.
Chairs including industrial and office chairs and other articles of furniture are marketed with metal tubular legs and cast legs as need and buyer demand dictates. The cast legs are drilled in their lower ends to provide a bore to receive the pintle of a caster or the shank of a glide. The tubular legs are constructed of metal tubing stock having an inside diameter substantially larger than the bore of a cast leg, and therefore a larger diameter glide must be provided for placement on the tubular leg, and an insert must be installed in the tubular leg to form a socket for the pintle of a standard caster. Consequently, the chair manufacturer or distributor must stock two sizes of glides for the two types of legs, a caster insert for the tubular leg, plus casters. Heretofore, no economical solution to the problem of reducing this costly inventory of chair hardware has been offered, and it is the main object of the present invention to provide a simple and economical solution to the problem whereby the same caster and glide can be used on either a tubular chair leg or a cast leg having a drilled bore. As a consequence, the necessity for stocking a larger glide and a caster pintle insert for tubular legs is entirely eliminated, and the costly hardware inventory problem is substantially reduced.